On plagiarism and fraud in the Middle Eastern research community (by Ranya Stamboliyska):

Gallons of digital ink have been spilt discussing depressing laundry lists of misconduct cases in the west (and more recently, in China). There is, however, very little on unethical behaviour in the Arab world, despite the wide number of Mid-Eastern students from local and foreign universities who work and publish, both at home and abroad, prior to entering academia […] Editors cannot and must not, however, be solely held to account for frauds, forgery and plagiarism. Yet nothing suggests that research institutions and universities in the Arab world have engaged in actual policy-making to prevent misconduct […] One cannot speak of policy-making and public oversight without mentioning one very worrisome trend in the MENA [Middle East and North Africa]: the politicisation of science. The most recent example that springs to mind is of course the Egyptian army’s miraculous cure for hepatitis C and AIDS.

Read the full article here.